The breakfast baton 23 - Mary Pendergast

Mary Pendergast can point to several people in her life who've helped to shape who she is, not the least of which was her mother...

As one of seven kids growing up on a farm around Warrnambool in the 60's, Mary recalls a fairly regimented upbringing which revolved around the 'rhythms of the farm'. Her family were very close, and their lives consisted of study, sport, the church, and home. Outings into Warrnambool were rare, and even trips to the beach were always organised around the work which needed to be done at the farm.

She imagines modern youth would describe her childhood as relatively boring, but Mary found it very fulfilling and thinks today's kids are missing out on those spaces for reflection and silence which were an important part of her upbringing. Unusually for the time, her mother had a firm belief in education and insisted Mary and her siblings finish their schooling through to the higher years instead of leaving during high school. Mary describes her mother as being 'future focussed before her time', and says this approach ensured the children would have a greater number of options later in life.

There certainly weren't a huge number of options in 1973 though when Mary was working out what she wanted to do in life... As she says, 'if I wasn't going to be a secretary or get married next year, the only other choices were to be either a teacher or a nurse'. Perhaps because of her upbringing, Mary chose to go to Melbourne to study teaching.

Away from the routine of the farm and the closeness of her family, she found the first year in Melbourne pretty unsettling, and still thinks country kids relocating to the city today have to undergo a huge adjustment. Her career took off pretty quickly after leaving University - starting at a school in Ringwood, Mary spent the next seven years teaching in Melbourne before moving back to Warrnambool with a husband and a baby on the way.

While back home, she started working at Brauer college and also worked at the TAFE and Warrnambool College before being tempted back to Melbourne to work at the Melbourne Girls College. Eventually, the job of principal came up at Warrnambool College, so Mary made the move back and has been enjoying life in her home town ever since.

She describes the principal role as a terrific job, but a very big one. Somewhat controversially she also feels, despite the perceptions of young people themselves, modern youth are staying younger for longer and maturing later. She contrasts her own quick period of growing up and taking on responsibility with the slower path most kids find themselves on today, and says the most important thing adults can do is give their kids a strong value system and a moral purpose for life.